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Tonic Studios Sun Catcher Wreath by Lore Green

Hi crafters! For this blog post, I planned to focus on using acetate in cardmaking but as I began to play with the Tonic Floral Favour Octagon Layering Dies, I also started to see how the dies could be used to make a wreath. So, as I am rubbish at making decisions, I have ended up using the Tonic dies to make a wreath with an acetate centre.

The Tonic die set that I used compliments several of the Tonic box making die sets, but it is a beautiful die set in its own right. As it is a layering set, you have many sizes to choose from and the dies have various different designs along the cutting edge of the various layers from holes that would look great with ribbon or thread going through it, a scallop edge, straight edge and ‘dimple’ edge. The set also includes a small centre die that cuts out small leaves and petals to make dainty flowers.

The wreath is simple to make and you will only need:

Tonic Floral Favour Octaganol Layering Die

Black, red and green card

Double-sided adhesive sheets

Alcohol/permanent markers

Flower and leaf embellishments/die cuts

Tonic Nuvo Crystal Drops

Ribbon

The first step is to cut out your layers. Peel back the top layer of the double-sided adhesive sheet and lay the black card over the adhesive sheet. Place your chosen size octagon die over the black card and run it through your die-cutting machine. I used the second smallest complete octagon die with the ‘dimpled’ edge. After cutting your octagon in the black card, you need to take the large floral insert die and place it in the middle of the octagon and tape it down with low tack tape so it doesn’t move. If you’re worried about getting the centre right, you can place the other layering dies inside your octagon and they will guide you to the centre. You can then remove them before you run it through your machine.

Next you will need to use the octagons to create frames that will fit the wreaths. I took the smallest complete octagon die with the straight edge to cut the inner edges of the frame and I took the second smallest complete octagon edge die with the ‘dimpled’ edge to cut the outer edges. You will need to cut one frame in each colour – red and green.

To cut the acetate, I used the second smallest complete octagon die with the ‘dimpled’ edge so it was the same size as the black card I had just cut. As acetate marks easily, I placed a sheet of copier paper underneath and on top of the acetate in between the cutting plate sandwich so that there was less chance of cut marks from your plates marring the acetate as it passes through the die-cutting machine.

Take your black card with the large floral insert and peel back the adhesive layer behind the black card. Carefully lay the black card over the acetate octagon. Go slowly and smooth it down as you go. When that’s done, you will need to remove the black centre. Take the smallest edge die that winds it’s way around the edge of the floral insert and tape it in the centre of the insert panel, run it back through the die-cutting machine. Even though the insert die was cutting through medium weight black card, an adhesive layer and acetate it still gave a clean and easy cut.

Next comes my favourite part… colouring in the acetate. As acetate is shiny, you will need to use permanent or alcohol markers and it is best to colour from the back of your design, so flip that card over and colour away.

When the colouring is finished, you just need to add your layers to the black card. First, I glued down the red card to the back of the black card and acetate to make the back neat, especially important if you’re using the wreath as a sun-catcher against a window. I used foam pads to adhere the green layer to the front of black card to give the wreath a bit of dimension.

All that’s left to do is add your choice of embellishments to the wreath. I used some pre-cut flowers and leaf die-cuts from my stash and some ribbon as a wreath wouldn’t be a wreath without a bow. I added Tonic Nuvo drops in gold to the centre of my flowers, I love Nuvo drops! I finished by adding some thread to wreath so it would hang.

I also made a larger wreath that uses the largest octagon layer die as a starting point.